Ella Langley Says “You Look Like You Love Me” Is A True Story About A Real Man: “If I Want Something, Baby, I’m Gonna Go Get It”

Ella Langley

It’s a true story.

I think we’ve all heard Riley Green and Ella Langley’s smash hit “You Look Like You Love Me” probably more than we wanted to at this point… it’s a great song, but I have heard it so many times now I don’t think I can listen to it even one more time. From radio, to social media, the song was (and still is) everywhere, and it certainly launched Ella’s career and put her into a new stratosphere in terms of her place in mainstream country.

It hit #1 at country radio, and the pair also won the CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year for “You Look Like You Love Me” last year. The song was included on Ella’s 2024 debut studio album Hungover, and became one of the biggest hits of the year. She co-wrote most of it with Aaron Raitiere, while Riley came up with the words for his second verse later on, after Ella had already cut it as a solo song. She recalled Aaron asking her about her love life during a write, and she told him:

“‘Honestly, I’m at the point where if they look like they love me, I gotta get out of there. It’s just too much for me right now.’ And we giggled at that, and then as songwriters, when you hear something like ‘you look like you love me,’ we’re like, ‘Well there’s a title, You Look Like You Love Me.’

And we just wrote the title down… we wrote the song in 2022, so six months later, we had an afternoon write, he loves to talk about how I brought in this bowl of spaghetti. I made my lunch, brought it in… and we say this is like the luckiest bowl of spaghetti. I think we might get a tattoo with a tiny piece of spaghetti on it.”

They sat down and penned it very quickly, and Ella explained that she was inspired by what she called the “talking country” she grew up on, specifically one of her first favorite songs in David Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me by My Name.” She didn’t think “YLLYLM” would ever even make it onto a record, because they were “just talking,” not really singing, and in terms of the content of the lyrics, it certainly was very different than the typical country cliches with the woman walking up to the man in a role reversal from most country music.

While she and Riley have both made comments about how they thought it might be “too traditional” to do well at country radio, fan reaction has been the total opposite, and saying it’s a hit feels like an understatement in many ways.

It’s a super clever and fun, and I can only imagine how many people have used the pickup line on both Ella and Riley since the song has been out, but also just out in the wild at bars trying to flirt and say something funny. I’m not sure it would actually work or is all that practical in real world practice, but it certainly gets a strong point across.

Honestly, I never really thought about whether or not it was a true story, or just something fun Ella came up with as a song idea, and I kinda figured she just made the whole thing up. But while playing a set at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest, Ella told the massive crowd that she came up with it after a night at an (undisclosed) bar and saw a “sexy man” in there playing pool:

“I was gonna share the story… it’s probably the biggest crowd I’ve shared the story with. I was at the bar, ain’t gonna tell you which one, but I was at one of them.

And there was a sexy man in there, and he was playing pool. One thing you should know about me, is if I want something, baby, I’m gonna go get it.”

Now I’m dying to know what this man looks like… and if he knows who he is, which I’m assuming he does (no, I don’t think it’s Riley Green, but I’m sure fans will take that and run with it too), that’s gotta be a massive ego boost knowing she wrote “You Look Like You Love Me” about you. Just all-time great bragging rights for that:

“You Look Like You Love Me”